The framework for the survey

12. Local community

Villages or nomadic tents clustered in the proximity of monasteries have always
been important for the monasteries as their main livelihood, but in
descriptions of Tibetan monasteries they are very often ignored. The surveyors
were therefore requested to give a fair amount of information about them. Such
information in fact gives an interesting idea whether the villagers regard
themselves as still being Bon believers, and as it has been found in certain
places that they in fact do not differentiate between Bon or Buddhism in clear
cut terms. However, there are still many villages in various regions whose
populations declare themselves to be followers of the Bon religion to this day.